SIR Paul McCartney today said George Harrison will be "sorely missed".

Speaking outside his home in St John's Wood, north-west London, McCartney asked the media to respect the wishes of Harrison's family.

He said: "He will be missed sorely by all his friends and loved ones. I'd like to ask that everyone, mainly the media, treats Olivia and Dhani with great kindness at this very difficult time.

"I've known George for ever and he was a really beautiful guy who I love dearly.

"He was a great guy, full of love for humanity but he didn't suffer fools gladly. He's a great man. He'll be sorely missed by everyone."

McCartney said he heard the news last night and that last time he saw him was a few weeks ago.

He said: "He had a long battle with his cancer and I saw him a few weeks ago and he was full of fun and he always was. He's a brave lad.

"To me he's just my little baby brother - we grew up together and I knew him in my old home town of Liverpool and we just had so many beautiful times together and that's what I'm going to remember him by.

"A lovely guy who is full of humour as I was saying. When I saw him last time he was obviously very unwell but he was cracking jokes like he always was and he'll be sorely missed. He's a beautiful man. The world will miss him."

McCartney said that although he knew that George had been ill for quite some time he said he has always hoped that some kind of miracle might happen.

Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Ireland for talks today - and spoke of his grief at George's death.

He said : "He wasn't just a great musician and artist but he also did an immense amount for charity. He will be greatly missed."

Irish premier Bertie Ahern said: "George had many Irish family and used to come back and visit them in the 60s. " The Beatles are nearly as popular now as they were then and I am sure Beatles fans across the world will be very sad today."

Sir Bob Geldof said he was "shocked and stunned" to hear of George's death.

"He wasn't a reluctant Beatle. I mean he knew that his place in popular culture was absolutely secure.

"I doubt there's a person that can't remember each one of his guitar lines. Almost uniquely, everything he played was a hook-line."

Actor Michael Palin, who met the Beatle after he sent a letter to the BBC to say how much he enjoyed Monty Python's first show in 1969, said he had a "great wit, a great sense of humour".

George then became very friendly with the Python team, particularly with Eric Idle, and in 1978 bankrolled their film Life Of Brian.

Palin said the mystical side to George was always balanced by a "sort of nice, down-to-earth Liverpudlian attitude to life".

"George wasn't head in the clouds all the time, when it came to business and all that - he was feet very much on the ground," Palin told Radio 4's Today.

"There was a mixture there and it was a rather pleasant mixture, and I think it helped him a lot in the last few years, that he had his spirituality.

"Death held no terrors for George whatsoever, and he still got a lot out of life and found the humour was there right up to when the last time I saw him, which was in August.

"He could be curmudgeonly about tax demands and all that but George, always called the quiet Beatle, never stopped talking when I was with him.

"He had an enormous number of friends who were terribly loyal to him and will be very sad and unhappy at what's happened today.

"George always had a great number of friends and he was a great entertainer, he wasn't the silent one who sat in the corner by any means."

John Chambers, of the Liverpool Beatles Appreciation Society, described George's death as "the end of an era" for fans of the band.

He said: "This is a terribly sad day. I'm sure I speak for all Beatles fans when I say I'm absolutely heartbroken.

"Until now there has always been the hope of a reunion, perhaps with Julian Lennon standing in for his dad.

"But now George has gone there is no chance of Paul and Ringo getting together for a reunion. It really is the end of a dream, the end of an era.

"The only comfort we can take is the legacy of the music, which is as powerful and mysterious today as it ever was."

Original Beatle Pete Best heard the news as he was flying over to America to perform.

"I am absolutey stunned It is a tragic loss of a life, a tragic loss of a great musician."

"A rock star who was never happier than spreading fertilizer on his garden. He even dedicated his autobiography 'I Be Mine' to all gardeners everywhere."

Former Beatles promoter Sid Bernstein said: "I am very sad.

"I'm a guy who believes in miracles and I was hoping for one for him.

"He was a very, very selfless man, a very quiet and thought-out man, a caring man and a great artist.

"It wasn't an accident that he had a great reputation around the world, he was a great human being and cared about people.

"He did not seek prominence, he lived a very quiet life and was a good soldier in the fight for peace.

"He will be sadly missed." Merseybeat star Gerry Marsden:

"It's very, very sad, he was so young and such a very nice man I just can't believe he has gone.

"It is a great loss to the industry as George was still writing songs.

"I will remember him as the quiet one, he was no hassle to anyone and always really polite. He kept himself to himself.

"I was big mates with John Lennon because he was a bit mad, like me, but I have great respect for George.

"I liked George a lot, he was a great lad, God Bless him."

Liverpool's Lord Mayor Gerry Scott: "He was one of the greatest Liverpudlians. He was a warm, peace-loving man who was much more than a talented musician.

A spokesman for the Beatles' Story Museum, Albert Dock, said: "The Beatles' Story, Liverpool, wishes to express its heartfelt sympathy and sadness at the tragic loss of George Harrison.

"His outstanding contribution as a musician and an individual will be sorely missed world-wide.

"Our thoughts are with George's family and friends at this sad time.

"There will be a book of condolences for the public available at the Beatles' Story."

Professor Ray Donnelly, of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, said: "We are very sad, as we are when anyone with lung cancer dies.

"The sympathies of the whole foundation go out to the family.

"This demonstrates to everyone the disastrous consequences of smoking cigarettes.

"George had smoked very heavily for many years and although he stopped recently the damage was done when he was young."

Bob Wooler, the Cavern DJ who introduced The Beatles live on stage: "George had to fight all the way to get the recognition he deserved.

"The others really asserted themselves, and of course, eventually found the winning formula which was Lennon and McCartney.

"But in those early days it would have been wrong to talk in terms of the Mersey Sound, because all the Beatles sang in strict rotation, and mostly cover numbers made famous by other artists.

"This meant that George, who always stood on the left, looking at the stage, sang quite a lot."

Former Radio One DJ Simon Bates said: "He was an individual, charming and graceful man. He was under-appreciated when he was in the Beatles."

Liverpool solicitor Rex Makin: "I remember George as a tousledhaired lad who used to visit Brian Epstein on a Sunday morning. He shone out for decency and quietness.

"He was the most quiet and unassuming of all the Beatles, distinct from the extrovert Lennon, the show off McCartney and the muzzled Ringo.

"It's a very sad day for everyone, now we only have two Beatles left."

Tony Barrow, Beatles' first press officer from 1962-'68: "George was certainly the friendliest Beatle from the very beginning.

"He had the reputation for being the quiet one. He hated all of the Beatlemania thing. When I was arranging interviews for George I had to be very selective because sit him down in front of an interviewer who wants to know about his collection of instruments and he would talk all day.